The Beast Within
by Drachen's Bloody Claws
Summary: This is a story about Dalai Hansberry, a German-American teen girl with dragon powers. After a tragedy that killed her family, she ran away and joined the Brotherhood. What lies in store for her? [This story is completely OC-based. Updates may be irregular.]
1. The Beast Within Intro

Hey. DEATH's here again. In this story, I talk about a German girl named Dalai, born with the X-gene, goes through an overwhelming life, born in Berlin but moves to the U.S. after her father dies in battle, her mother has decent finances and a decent six-figure salary, she has her little ordinary group of friends in her new school from kindergarten all the way to high school, but then her dragon mimicry suddenly appears out of nowhere when she's under major stress and she burns her entire school down, also killing some of her friends, including her best friend. And then turns to shameful to return home so she goes to wandering out on the streets. The somewhat usual Marvel mutant OC story, either boy or girl, but not totally like it. And, instead of going to the X-Men, she, slightly surprisingly, went to the Brotherhood. Why? Obviously because the Brotherhood have so little members in every universe it's just overwhelmingly sad in a way. But, in this X-Men: Evolution universe, the Brotherhood has at least 20 - 25 members, but the X-Men still have more than the Brotherhood - around 40 - 50 members.

In this story Dalai meets a lot of people - most annoying, but some on the borderline. Many other personal things happen to her. Well, those things are not very personal, but she just considers them personal. The others don't really care because who would.

So, that's a very short overview of the entire story.

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays,

The Demon of DEATH


	2. Prologue

**NOTES: This is an OC only story. The chapters are also told in first person. Also, it would be nice if I could get at least one review. Some improvement tips would be helpful, too.**

_Dragons. A common mythical creature. Everyone says they're they are from fake myths and mythology. Nothing more than a creature from a mere whelp's imagination from stupid fairy tales and fake Greek and English myths, for example, Saint George and the Dragon. Well, I'm here to tell you that this is a fake statement. I am an actually living and breathing dragon. I am living proof that dragons are capable of being real. My name is Dalawni Hansberry. This is my life story._

_OK__, introduction. I'm a German, Irish, Dutch, Russian, Italian, and French immigrant. How could I be of all those nationalities, you might ask? Every one of my siblings are from a different country. Valoria, the oldest, is from Russia. The second and third oldest, Adelaide and Anton, who are twins, are both from Nice, France. Kaeya and Mira, the fourth and 5th oldest, are from the Netherlands. I'm from Munich, Germany, and last, but not least, the youngest, Daliah, is from New York City._

_Now, the start of the actual story. My father worked as a military soldier while my mother stayed home and watched us. Aunt Asila, her sister from Italy, would always give her money to feed us and for us to keep our house. Soon Papa died from cancer. That was a very sad and heartbreaking time for all of us, especially Mama, since during that time she was in a deep state of depression. She was getting paid less and less doing her job and soon were becoming so poor that we had no choice but to go to America. So Aunt Asila combined her money with her other siblings and bought 9 tickets, 7 for my siblings and I, 1 for Aunt Asila, and one for Mama, and we all flew to America._

_The airplane flight was quite uncomfortable and exhaustingly long. We flew 9 hours on a dizzying, slightly bumpy airplane. Adelaide and Anton were even feeling very nauseous on the flight since none of us, including Mama and Aunt Asila, had never been on an airplane before. But, we all had to agree that the flight was worth it when we reached the runway of the international New York airport. We were amazed and even dazed for a few moments._

_Valoria showed us around the city, although she had no idea where she was going, either. We were all even more dazed when we saw the spectacular Statue of Liberty, a statue that was more marvelous than anything we had seen in Germany. Now, I've told you all about the arrival. I'll get to the other parts now. The parts where Daliah was born and when we started school here in New York._

_Daliah was born a few months after we all were in America. But she only lived with us for three months before she was given to the Washingtons. Mama unfortunately didn't want were all much better at that time than we ever were in Germany. We owned a large house with decorations, an outside pool, and actual golden decor on the inside. It was very expensive, but since Mama had a job and a luxurious seven-figure salary, we were able to keep the house for a long time without debt. But, of course, like every house, we had to give it up when I was 9 and we moved to a smaller but still nice house like the first one._

_But when I was 9, that was the absolute worst time of my elementary years. I was terribly mocked and jeered at. Almost all my childhood friends from kindergarten turned their backs on me and joined the others in the teasing. All except one named Ava. She stayed by my side from kindergarten to now. She helped me during this hard time, and the teasing continued all the way until I was almost 14._

_That was when I knew that had to change. I decided I wouldn't deal with it anymore. I was sick of it. I even told Ava that and she agreed with me, but the way I chose to deal with it was not at all the way she thought I would've. Then one day, I showed it to everyone. I turned into a dragon and burned the school down, hurling fireballs constantly without thinking. My mind was blank. Worst of all, I killed Ava and her older sister who were my friends since childhood. That left everlasting regrets._

_Well, after all, this I was too shameful to return to my mother and I was on my own. Roaming the streets while being a depressed, lonely young teenage girl, with a blank, lifeless mind. I was too ashamed to even speak and everyone thought I was mute until I found a home and stayed with my allies, the Brotherhood. They welcomed me. I could never have felt anything better. I made friends, rivals, and other allies. And no one could ever take that feeling away._

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_Like it? Hate it? Review!_


	3. Arrival

_Sorry that this took so long to update. I've been busy. _

_A/N: This is probably going to be very obvious, but this chapter takes place the exact day Dalai joined the Brotherhood._

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Nervously approaching the house, I took a deep breath. This was the Brotherhood house, another haven for so-called "mutants". In all honesty, the house looked quite nice. It was a large brick house, resembling a mansion from the outside. The roof was gray and had not one missing shingle. The house also had two beautiful balconies. _They must be rich, _was one of my first thoughts as I knocked at the door.

A girl who was older than me with red hair, probably auburn, in a long bob kind of hairstyle and bright green eyes opened the door casually, leaning to the side. She grinned at me. "Hm, another newbie," she assumed, stroking her chin in thought. I barely knew how to reply to what she said.

"Um, yes I guess?" I said sheepishly with a nervous expression spreaded across my facial features.

"Mutant who's parents either disowned them or just ran away?" she also assumed with a cheeky I-knew-it type of grin.

"Yes, I ran away," I said speechless. "How'd you know?"

"Kid, everyone here has the same tragic backstory. Come on in," she said in a more welcoming tone.

Once I entered the seemingly elegant house, I was surprised as I saw how it was in such poor shape. At nearly every corner I peeked at, there was a terrible-looking crack. It looked humiliating, but the other members, many of whom were looking bored or doing something very strange for the situation like reading a book. Another girl had red hair and silver eyes who looked much older than everyone else was reading a book with tortoiseshell glasses on. A boy with dark brown hair who looked about sixteen was watching television nearby, occasionally laughing loudly, which was sure to distract the other girl. But, instead, her eyes focused on the book.

"Excuse me," the girl who had welcomed me in started speaking and the girl and boy turned to her. "We have a newbie." When she said that, all I did was wave politely.

"So... let's introduce ourselves! I'm Julia, or Ultrasound if you want to call me by my alias." Julia smiled.

"Oooh, a new person!" the boy squealed in delight and rolled his pink wheelie chair towards me.

"Isaiah, please to meet you!" he frantically shook my hand with a large, goofy smile on his pale face.

The girl who was reading a book sighed. "Damn... do you people have to be so hyper?" she asked in a very dull tone.

Isaiah simply stuck his tongue at her and the girl sighed again.

"Elise." the girl said once again in her dull tone.

As Isaiah lowered the volume of the television to a volume so low I couldn't hear very well, I heard the faint sound of another television upstairs.

"AMY!" Julia yelled and a brown-haired girl ran down the stairs.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Say hello to the newbie."

"Oh. Hi."

"Uh, hello," I said and Amy seemed to stare at me.

Maya was watching and all she muttered was, "Oh lord, here it goes again."

"You're... German, am I right?" Amy asked.

"Yes...?" was all I replied.

Amy snickered. "Hm, I could tell that you were a stupid Nazi by the accent," she insulted me with a prideful grin.

I couldn't help but glare at her. "I'm not a Nazi," I snapped back, childhood memories flooding back.

"Yeah, whatever little-"

Elise interrupted Amy. "Amy," she said in an authoritative tone since she had dealt with the same disrespect when she came.

Amy grunted and stomped back upstairs. A sickened expression was still on my face.

Julia noticed this and said, "Don't worry, she's just racist. You'll get by. Elise did, and so did I." Julia also added, with a smile, "I'm German, too."

"Scottish," Elise said.

A hint of glee touched my expression and Julia stated, "Oh my, we were so busy telling you our names, you didn't get a chance to tell us your name!"

"Oh, my name. It's Dalai," I replied.

"Nice name," Elise commented.

"Um, thank you. So, what do you people do around here?" I asked, looking around at the cracks in the interior of the house.

"Well, Elise is the normal boring lazy one who's the oldest out of all of us. She's 19. Isaiah isn't as boring but is always watching some ridiculously unfunny television show he always thinks is funny. And before you came in, Dalai, I was surfing the web, specifically _Forbes_ and _The New York Times_. You must see what they have to say about mutants." She giggled, skipping to her laptop. I walked after her, very confused why she was smiling so much.

"Look!" she exclaimed in her cheery voice, showing me a comment on a _New York Times_ article. It read,

"Mutints are evillllllllllllll and shud be kept awy. We donot know what typs of diseeses they may spread onto us and our childs and our childs' childs! Than we my beecume horirble monstars tooooo!"

I could barely understand the comment, but Julia laughed again, wiping a tear from her eye. "Oh, what a hilarious troll!" I didn't understand what she meant. She scrolled down to show more of the same messages posted by the same person and spammed all over the discussion.

Julia pretty much read my mind, saying, "If you don't know what a troll is, then I'll tell you. A troll is 'someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.'" She smiled proudly. "That was quoted straight from the Urban Dictionary."

"Wow," Elise remarked. "You're getting totally off-topic. I bet this noob is wondering what are our mutant abilities, you ding-dong."

"Don't call me a ding-dong!" Julia said in a snappy tone.

"Ding-dong," Elise muttered.

"I HEARD THAT! Oh, wait, that's a cliche, but I still heard that!" Julia yelled. I couldn't care more or less at this point. I sighed.

"If you're actually wondering, kid, I have a power called 'aerokinesis'." Elise set her book down and walked over to me. Snapping her fingers once, a wisp of air appeared in the palm of her opposite hand.

"Wow, that's pretty cool," I commented.

"Thank you. Now, Julia can create visible soundwaves. They look like heat waves in the air, the kind you see on an average summer day. How does she make them visible? I have not the slightest clue. And she can change her voice, but only change it into the voices of familiar cartoon characters or people like us."

"Hm, interesting I guess." I say again.

I heard a light knock at the front door. "I'll get it," Julia rang in her cheery voice again as she skipped to the front door in a kiddy way. She opened the door and I could see a girl with long purple hair that made her look like she was wearing anime cosplay, gray eyes, and a skinny build. She looked much younger than me, almost like a child.

"This is the Brotherhood House for mutants, correct? My older sister was once a member here and told me about this place." Her voice was so shaky it seemed as if she was traumatized.

Julia didn't mind at all and just smiled in the ridiculously goofy grin she wore on her face all the time. "It sure is! Come in," she said as she stepped aside for the purple-haired girl to walk in. Even the way she walked in was in such a fearful way I could feel a very negative vibe from her, which I also have a knack for.

Elise sighed. "Why a bunch of noobs all of a sudden," she muttered. The girl probably heard this and looked like she was going to cry.

Julia saw her upset frown and told Elise, "Why would you upset such an adorable girl?" She looked at her again.

"Um, I'm 15, just to let you know," she said again in her very quiet voice.

Julia chuckled nervously, possibly thinking she was much younger than how old she really was. "I knew that," she said nervously. "Of course I didn't know! I thought you were 12!" she added.

"A lot of people think that," the purple-haired girl replied. "Um, I guess I'll introduce myself. I'm Violet Illium, I'm 15, but you may already know because I just said that." Elise facepalmed, but Violet carried on. "A-and I can lift things up with my mind, I'm not sure what it's called."

Elise couldn't help but yell out, "It's called telekinesis you ding-dong!" She sighed. "My gosh, these people are so stupid,"

Violet started to look like she was going to cry again. I began to sigh too. I didn;t know what was her problem. She was being so unrealistically fearful of everything. What a crybaby, I thought briefly.

"And if you don't know I also can read minds. I think it's called telepathy."

Elise said, "At least she knows what's that called."

I spoke, "Well, I can turn into a dragon, which comes with its own perks including enhanced senses and sensing negative and positive energy around me or others. "

Elise looked uninterested, "It's a cool power, but we have a member with a deadlier power."

"Who?"

"Amy. She can generate electricity and use it without a problem. She like our... racist powerhouse."

It's a shame she's racist, but I have no comments about the powerhouse thing. I started to wonder if they had rooms here.

"Let's show the newbies their rooms!" Julia rang again. She read my mind again. How does she do that?

Violet quickly followed her upstairs and I scurried quickly to catch up with them. My hair bobbed and settled on my shoulders.

Julia was already showing Violet the hall of empty rooms. I tried to peek at one room they were looking at that was at the end of the hall, but they were blocking the entrance. I was short, being only 5'3.

I managed to peek a little and I saw a dresser next to a bed with floral covers, a closet, and a desk. The walls were an unusually bright yellow. Julia started to get off-topic and complain about how she painted all the walls in all the rooms with no help. She also convinced the members if too many people join, two or three people will have to be grouped into a room, but since there aren't many members, they won't have to do that now.

Julia greeted me after Violet picked the room. "Hi Dalai! Let me show you your room. You'll love it!"

She took me to a room with the same things the other rooms had. The walls in this room were a very dark green. It disturbed me and made me feel like it was nighttime, but it was actually just the afternoon. I mentally sighed. I like normal colors but despise tints and shades. AN orange would've been much nicer for this room.

I ignored the ugly color and threw my bag on the bed and started to unpack. I sigh. This is going to be a very, very, very long, uh... stay.

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I know it was a mediocre ending to a chapter, but this is my second story and I'm very inexperienced at writing chapters, so forgive me. :c

Anyway, whether you liked the story or not, please give a review! If you would like to give some constructive criticism, you can also give a review! :)


	4. Adventure

I groggily woke up, hearing a loud shrieking sound that forced me to shoot out of bed in extreme anxiety. I ran down the steps, nearly stumbling on my own two feet. I felt my whole body shaking with some sudden fear, although I couldn't even pinpoint why. "Did something happen?" I asked Elise, my voice quaking. She shot me a confused look.

"Yeah, actually. Julia dropped a pan and some utensils that screeched the wood floor, but that was pretty much it," Elise replied, shaking her head at the extremely clumsy girl. A frown appeared on my face.

"That was all? I thought something terrible happened. I heard the screeching from my room." I commented with an upset tone. "Well, since I'm up and probably won't be able to go to sleep, I might as well ask. What do you guys do all day?"

"Well, we do anything that'll show outsiders that we, mutants, are superior. We usually rob random banks and run into the X-men, who are boring mutant pacifists that don't like our ideas."

"Why can't we make, maybe, some kind of treaty with them? Why can't we reason with them?" I questioned, hoping my question didn't sound too dumb.

"Oh Dalai," Julia laughed, startling me because I didn't realize how close to Elise and I she was, "you can't reason with them. They're hypocrites! They defend humankind but are against their own kind, mutant kind, being superior. Nothing can get worse than that!"

I nodded, definitely agreeing with Julia. Hypocrites are something that no one except for other hypocrites likes. I sigh deeply. It sounds very sad. No one is on the correct side. I hear a knock on the door. If that person is not a human who is coming to our door to randomly mock us, that will be the second person joining us within two days. Opening the door, I see a very handsome boy with brown hair and sharp features. He dressed very casually and had something stuck the pockets of his blue jeans that made them bulge. I feel curious to see what was inside his pockets, but I paid more attention to how handsome and tall he was. I felt my cheeks heat up.

"Oh, hi," I stammer, "so are you a mutant?" He nodded in response.

"Yes, I am," he replied in a quite friendly manner. His voice sounded high and almost womanly. "Is this the Brotherhood house? My parents actually forced me to try to join you guys."

My eyes widen. Maybe his parents didn't exactly know what we stood for and accidentally forced him to come to us? Doesn't matter what happened, though. Maybe the weird mistake his parents possibly made will end up being for the better. "Wow, how interesting. And yeah, this is the place. It's pretty ugly on the inside and out, but just try to act as if none of these cracks and breaks never happened." He nodded again and came in. "We have another person," I shouted, hoping that someone would care enough to introduce themselves.

Julia was the only person that came to the front, or, at least, the only person I could see with my vision. Everyone else might be secretly listening somewhere else, for all I could care.

"Hi! I'm Julia!" she said to the boy in her normal overly cheerful voice that matched her surprisingly upbeat attitude. The boy gave a small wave. You could tell he wasn't super extroverted, unlike Julia who was hyper.

"Hey, I'm Marcus."

"Oh!" Julia rang out. "So what can you do?"

Marcus briefly looked around. "Do you have anything metallic that I could use?"

"Oh, yeah! We have some tin and aluminum. I actually melted a tin can a while back by accident. I still kept the remains. Heh." Julia ran up the steps, almost what sounded like stomping, and came with a ball of tin. Marcus grabbed it and held it in the palms of his hands. He placed his hands on the top and bottom of the ball and stretched it into a metal shard. Julia stood there, excited that we now had a metal bender.

"I can manipulate metals," he replied very plainly. "That's why I carry these shards. I have probably 30 of them in total." He took a handful of about 6 from his jean pocket and squeezed them together into one mass of silver.

"Awesome dude. We needed someone like you. All we have is an airbender, an electricity girl, and a dragon hybrid along with a mindreader. It's so boring around here," Julia said a bit humorously.

Elise finally came from what I'm guessing really was a hiding place. Her hair was loose and she flicked it as if trying to show a cheeky and loose side. Once she came to us, she tied her hair up in a bun. Her face straightened all over again and her expression matched her no-nonsense attitude. "Who's this?" she asked in such a thick Scottish accent I was worried that neither Marcus nor Julia would be able to understand her.

"His name is Marcus. He's a newcomer." I answered, unaware if the question was directed towards any one person.

Elise stared at him apathetically and then emitted a lifeless "Hello" followed by "I'm Elise." This wasn't unusual at all. When I met her, she didn't seem to have much life. I guess her apathy wasn't something geared towards one person. He waved. It looked like he was scared of her.

Julia turned me, causing my back to face the others. "I think you like Marcus, Dalai!" she whispered very out-of-the-blue, making my face turn very red. Elise looked over our shoulders and sighed, also joining the two of us to add her own thoughts.

"You seriously shouldn't. You two have no connections and never will. This is the typical girl likes new boy plot."

I raised an eyebrow. "For some reason you're so stiff when it comes to relationships. Did you have relationship problems?"

Elise shook her head. "I'm an asexual aromantic. Maybe that explains it?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm in her second sentence as if I should've known she was obviously aromantic.

"I'm a proud pansexual!" Julia whisper-yelled. "But really, you shouldn't toss all your feelings into a guy who might be asexual but you don't know it. Or gay, or something else. That's not going to be good. Focus more on something else!" She smiled, realizing that Marcus was still behind us, waiting for someone to take him to his room.

"Oops, sorry! The three of us were having a little talk. I'll take you to your room!" Julia said in her normal overly happy tone. Marcus shrugged, seemingly unaffected by our girl talk. Elise smiled at me, or at least in my direction.

"We're going to rob a bank tonight, Dalai. I've already planned it out. Get that nwcomer boy to help us. Then he'll really see what we do. For now, he probably thinks we're a bunch of dumb lazy mutants who watch TV all day."

"Like Isaiah," Julia added in a disappointed tone, her eyes flickering back and forth to see if he was approaching us and possibly heard Julia. I nodded.

"Yep. I'm glad I finally have my own chance to do something decently productive while we also need to earn money to make this place look beautiful on the inside and outside."

Elise nodded. "We need to show people that just because we're mutants and some of us have disgusting powers doesn't mean we like to live like impoverished slobs. We're going to leave at exactly 10:00 PM when it's very dark and there aren't any guards around. Instead, there are dozens of security cameras. Of course, someone's going to have to destroy security cameras, but even if we mess up big time and we miss a few cameras, we'll have to dress up."

Julia nods and I follow. I wholeheartedly agreed with this plan, but since this was my first robbery, I was worried if everything turned out horribly and Marcus or I act like inexperienced rookies and we mess all the plans up and get locked in a special jail or even a normal one for that matter.

That day, all we did was eat and sleep, basically to get our bodies ready for what would be coming that night. 10 o'clock at night was rather late for me, but it may have just been me because I was, and still am, a heavy sleeper. When our clock struck ten, we all sped out of the house, Isaiah being the first one since he's the only one with actual super speed. The rest of us jumped into a military camouflage-colored Jeep that looked rather plain and probably wouldn't blend in with the night darkness. That would be a big red flag for us. Elise drove us to the bank carefully and we all hopped out.

Just as we were all getting out of the car, wearing black, I saw gray security cameras in front of us and gestured for Marcus to destroy it. Quickly, he stretched a metal shard and shot it straight at the camera. It was a quick sound and the metal was stuck inside the camera. It looked like it took a lot of effort for Marcus to pull it out to erase the possibility of someone finding it there. Surprisingly, there were guards there and shouted, "Hold still or we'll shoot!" Amy rubbed her hands together and electrocuted the three guards in front of us, causing them to fall to the ground almost instantly. It wasn't amazement that hit me, but instead, worry. I wasn't sure whether those men were dead or not and if they were, it could turn awful on our part if or when authorities see the bodies on the ground the next day. Suddenly, my horror turned to anger.

"Are you freaking kidding me? What do you think the authorities are going to do once they see these men lying here, dummy?" I whisper-yelled, only receiving so much as a threatening glare from Amy.

"Hey, you don't tell me what to do!" she yelled in a whisper. I rolled my eyes. What the heck was she talking about now? So now I'm controlling her for saying that we'll get in trouble when random people find these men on the ground? A harsh scoff escaped my lips in a way that was too harsh.

"So now I'm telling you what to do by saying that something bad's going to happen to us because of these dead men? Come on now," I said, scared on the inside for what Amy might do to me. "I mean, I knew you were probably pretty dumb, but not that freaking stupid." Amy gave me a very threatening glare, and so my eyes softened, but only a little bit. I was sick of her trying to manipulate me. First it was the Nazi name-calling garbage and now this?

"Hey, I'm not stupid or dumb and you better knock that off," she replied in an authoritative way. The only problem here was that she wasn't the authority. No one was. I couldn't help but laugh and take charge of this opportunity.

"Ha! So now you're acting like the boss? For all I know, you could be 14. You sure act like it. As a matter of fact, you act like a petty 10-year-old piece of racist garbage who can't differentiate between the 1940's and what's happening now. You're accusing me of being a Nazi so I can lose my mind over you and your small 4-year-old remarks? I'm sorry darling, it's just not happening. Oh, and if you studied well in history, you would've known that there are millions of Jews in Germany. Nowadays, there are still some Nazis, but just because of the Germany's history, it doesn't qualify every single freaking German to be a Nazi. That's just a stupid generalization." It felt so good for me to get all of that off my chest. I replied to her in a very firm voice. I was shocked that my voice sounded so confident.

Amy didn't reply. Instead, she just stared. To my surprise, she didn't appear dumbfounded, but instead, she appeared as if she was being corrected. She then just shrugged it off with a smirk. That was when I suddenly knew that no matter what I tell her, nothing is going to remove her ignorance.

Then, I realized that I was being left behind. Everyone else had already gone ahead with our plans. The vault was opened and they had brown bags filled with cash. I wasn't aware how because I was too busy bickering with Amy. I felt my temperature rising in anger and my blood boiled. I still don't know if I wasted time with my pep talk or if it was good. "We got the money!" Julia yelled in a singsong voice. In a quiet whisper-yell, she added, "Now let's get out of here!" I couldn't agree more at that point.

We stuffed the brown bags into the trunk of the Jeep and headed back home, with Elise again driving as carefully as possible. Because of this, it'd be hard to tell if we were robbers or law-abiding citizens. We hopped out and Elise slammed the door shut. We did the same. Julia continued to brag as Elise found the key to the house entrance. "Did you see how well we did? Huh, huh? Marcus was AWESOME! I mean, seriously, for a newcomer, this dude knows how to help out with robberies! Elise was cool too!" Marcus grinned proudly as Julia continued to boast of their accomplishment tirelessly. I felt mentally and physically exhausted, however. I looked up at a clock. It was 11:30 at night. I wearily fell asleep on a couch.

* * *

When I woke up, the clanging of pans startled me. I saw that there was a line of drool where my mouth was. I rubbed my eye and rose off of the couch, heading to the kitchen, tired and a bit puffy-eyed. It was Julia, banging two pans together like a cymbal. "Come on, Dalai! We need to eat before school!"

Those words went into my ears, awoke my brain, and left me confused and speechless. Who signed us up for school?

I didn't have time to ask her any questions. Julia slid eggs onto a plate made for me. I realized that I was wearing my clothes from last night and I would have to shower and change. I did just that, changing into a black smiley t-shirt with casual blue jeans. I saw that I wasn't the only one going to school. Beside me, Amy and Marcus were coming. I grunted, knowing this would be the worst part of my stay.


End file.
